Skates
by ALittleBitofEverything101
Summary: When Leslie is planning Ben's birthday party she plans it around his "things for skates". This is the story about how she found out about that thing. One-Shot. Disclaimer: I do not own Parks and Rec.


**Skates**

 **Summary: When Leslie is planning Ben's birthday party she plans it around his "things for skates". This is the story about how she found out about that thing. One-Shot. Disclaimer: I do not own Parks and Rec.**

Ben stared at Leslie, his cheeks slightly tinged with red. "Come again?" He asked, despite having heard her loud and clear the first time.

"I said, what would you think about an early nineties, roller skating party for your birthday?" Leslie asked. She had a sparkle in her eye that showed how proud she was of her idea. It was that sparkle that made Ben fall in love with her. He loved that sparkle.

"I almost wish we weren't married so I could propose to you right now," Ben told her affectionately. She could not have picked a more perfect theme for him. "How do you do this? How do you always manage to pick the perfect things for me? Gifts, party themes. It's amazing."

Leslie looked at him as if she were perplexed by his question. "It wasn't that hard. Everyone knows you are obsessed with the early nineties. You've gone on record saying that if you had to live in an era forever it would be the early nineties. As for the roller skating… Skates… Need I say more?" Leslie asked him with a wink.

"Ah yes. Skates," Ben said. He felt a little flustered and couldn't help the smile that crossed his face. Just a few years ago, he never imagined that he would be able to share that part of him with someone else and now he wasn't afraid to speak about it with those he was closest to. Leslie pulled out a pair of faded purple skates, the very skates that they had pulled out on numerous occasions, and he couldn't help but remember when Leslie had given them to him.

It had happened shortly after they started officially dating and Leslie was campaigning to become a City Councilor. Ben could see how the stress of the campaign was weighing down on Leslie and he knew that stress rivaled his own. He was so tense, he knew he wasn't going to help her de-stress unless they did something completely unrelated to the campaign. He suggested it as a joke at first, but then Leslie seemed really excited about it. It took her maybe five minutes to convince him that she really wanted to go. He had suggested roller skating. He had also suggested bowling or a movie, but for some reason Leslie really wanted to go skating. Had he known that she would agree to it, he might not have suggested it. He loved Leslie with all of his heart, but he wasn't sure he was ready for her to know. It was his secret, the one he carried with him since he was an awkward teenager.

Ben had done everything he could to mentally prepare himself to see Leslie on skates. He didn't know when this strange attraction of his had started. He supposed he had always loved them, but he had always been too embarrassed to talk about it. His high school girlfriend had found out that he had a thing for girls on skates and had told the whole school about it. They taunted him about it nearly every day. There was one day that several boys had put on skates and followed him around asking him if he was getting turned on. After a few weeks, it had died down until he had depleted the town's budget when he became mayor. After Ice Town had happened, the teasing had only gotten worse and had gotten a lot meaner. A few kids had actually accused him of creating Ice Town as a way of fulfilling his "creepy fetish." Ben never bothered to tell them that ice skates didn't have the slightest effect on him. Eventually they had forgotten about it, but Ben never did. He remembered how poorly it was received and had convinced himself that no one could possibly accept that part of him.

He didn't want Leslie to find out about it, because he really loved her. She was the first person he could really see himself having a future with and it seemed silly for him to jeopardize that future when he was more than satisfied with how things were between them now. He tried to rationalize that having a thing for girls on skates wasn't the worst he could do. There were people that were into some really strange things. He simply liked a girl on skates.

Ben thought maybe he could pull himself together quickly enough that Leslie wouldn't be suspicious. He should have known better, because one of the best and worst traits of his girlfriend was how freakishly observant she was. He also forgot to account for how she would look in skates. The moment he saw her he became an incoherent idiot, more so than he usually was. Seeing Leslie in skates was the most turned on he had ever been by a woman in skates.

Immediately, he felt like he was an awkward teenager that didn't know how to talk to women. "Hi skates. Nice Leslie," he said, his eyes wide as he looked at her. "Sorry... I don't know why I said that." He stumbled over his words as he spoke. He had thought they had gotten past the awkward, can't talk in front of the other person stage a long time ago, but this renewed that embarrassment. Perhaps it was because they had disliked each other when they first met and hid their relationship as it developed romantically, but they had seemed to bypass that awkward stage of their relationship, something Ben was eternally grateful about. With the exception of when they knew if they started something they would be risking their jobs, they had never really struggled to talk to one another. He should have known they were due for an awkward patch.

"Uh… Hi Ben. Same to you," she told him. She eyed him speculatively. Her skates were an ugly brown color, so she couldn't understand why he had complimented them. He had also kept his back to her the entire time she was tying up the skates they had rented from the rink. When Ben didn't say anything, she motioned to the rink. "You ready?"

"Ready? Oh yes. I was born ready," Ben said. He closed his eyes, wondering if he could possibly sound more stupid. It turns out he could. "Race you?"

He skated the brief distance to the door only to trip over the little ledge and land face first inside the skating rink. He almost wished he had suggested ice skating. At least he would have had something to dull his throbbing cheek.

"Are you okay?" Leslie asked panicked. She quickly skated to his side and helped him to his feet. She gently touched the sensitive area of his cheek as if she knew how to check if he were seriously injured. A group of teenage girls were pointing at him and giggling.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Ben told her. He wondered what else would go wrong that night. Why hadn't she listened to his suggestion of dinner and a movie? Great way to de-stress and more importantly no skates.

"It's a little red, but I don't think there's any serious damage. We can go see Ann if you want. She's the best and most beautiful nurse in the world," Leslie said with a small smile.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Ben said as he got to his feet. He stumbled briefly, but quickly regained his balance. "I feel fine."

"Why don't we just skate around a bit?" Leslie asked, extending her hand to him. He took it and as they began to skate side by side, Ben determinedly did not look at Leslie. At least not while she was looking at him. He couldn't help but steal glances every now and then. Seeing Leslie on skates was really feeding his imagination. At multiple points he almost convinced himself to come right out and tell her about his thing for skates. It was, after all, ridiculous that he couldn't share this part of him with her.

He could tell that Leslie knew something was off, but she didn't ask him about it. For that, Ben was grateful. It was uncharacteristic of Leslie to not pry into someone's business until she knew everything about them. She once had pestered him for five hours to find out why he didn't like the cheesecake brownies she had made for a campaign event, so he appreciated that she was holding herself back. He hoped she just thought he had hurt himself or was embarrassed from his fall.

After a little while, Leslie began talking about the campaign and Ben focused on that. He welcomed the distraction. As her campaign manager, they had a lot to talk about. Ben felt a little guilty because this was supposed to be a distraction so that Leslie wouldn't think about the campaign.

A week passed after they went roller skating. Leslie and Ben never talked about the awkward tension that had bloomed between them while they were skating, at least not until Ben walked into the kitchen to see a box on the counter next to the refrigerator. The box was wrapped in paper that had little skates on them and it was tied with laces. Ben tentatively opened it. There was another box inside and Ben briefly worried that Leslie had put several boxes in several boxes... again. Her record was 34 boxes. On top of the lid of the second box there was a note.

 _I love you. See you later. XOXO Leslie_

Ben looked up at the ceiling, trying to figure out if he had missed one of Leslie's insane anniversaries. He was fairly sure he hadn't, but knowing Leslie it could be the six month anniversary of a time she had a dream about him, or something equally as strange. Ann was lucky. She had been Leslie's friend long enough that she had had an entire year to learn all of the anniversaries they shared. She even got a calendar of all of their anniversaries every year. Ben hadn't had that luxury yet. On more than one occasion, he had considered getting Leslie a calendar to initiate receiving one, but he didn't want to offend her by leaving out the anniversaries he couldn't think of. Besides, he had gotten in the habit of having a small gift with him at all times in case she sprung an anniversary on him.

He opened the box to see a pair of purple roller skates. He frowned as he looked at them. There was no further clarification inside the box. He wondered if this was the one week anniversary of the first time they had gone roller skating, but that seemed excessive, even for Leslie.

Ben put the skates on the ground and turned back to the large board they had bought to help with their campaign plans. He threw out the random pictures that April and Andy always left for him. April's was particularly graphic today. She was really starting to embody the spirit of death in her pictures... and usually it was his death. Andy had either drawn a dog without a head or an odd rock. Not for the first time, Ben wished he and Leslie had their own place, so he could work without any interference or scary pictures from April. He had considered turning Leslie's house into their headquarters, but her house was a scary hoarder's nest and he was pretty sure it would take them years to clear out the clutter.

He had to confirm the interviews they had scheduled for the next day and had to see if there was anywhere else that could work Leslie into their schedule. It took him less than an hour to confirm Leslie's interviews for the next day and after that he tried to solidify their campaign strategy. No matter what he tried, he could not distract himself. He was more confused by this gift than he ever had felt. When he prepared his lunch he could practically hear the skates taunting him.

He was extremely grateful when Leslie called him to let him know she had left work. Not for the first time, Ben internally thanked Ron for telling Leslie she couldn't work more than ten hours a week, which because Leslie was a crazy person usually was about 20 hours, but still meant that Leslie was consistently taking half days. Since she could not miss a day of work without worrying that the Parks Department was going to spiral into chaos, she went into work every day and was usually back a little after noon. He paced as he waited for her to get home, trying to figure out how to ask her about the gift without upsetting her. He didn't want to seem forgetful, or like he didn't like the gift.

When she finally walked in, Ben felt like he was about to burst. He barely greeted her before he placed the box with the roller skates on the counter in the kitchen. "What are these for?" He asked.

"What do you want them to be for?" Leslie asked him.

Ben sighed. "I would have guessed skating, but there's no way I'll fit in these," Ben told her. He quickly realized that she might not have known that they were too small and he scrambled to cover his bases. "Not that that matters or anything. I'm sure my feet could shrink."

Leslie shook her head. "I knew when I bought them that they weren't your size," Leslie told him calmly. There was a spark in her eye, a spark that made him fall in love with her all over again. It was the spark that meant she was proud of herself.

"You knew?" Ben clarified. Nothing about his girlfriend made sense to him.

"Yes. I planned it that way," Leslie told him simply. "Those skates will not fit you, but they are a perfect fit for me."

"So you bought me a gift for yourself?" Ben asked.

"No. This is absolutely a gift for you," Leslie told him. She looked deeply into his eyes, the way only she could. Ben felt like she was seeing into his very soul. "I had so much fun skating last week and it got me thinking. I figured there may be… some other recreational purposes we could use them for."

Ben looked down at the ground, his embarrassment washing over him. "You know," he said quietly.

"I'm not blind Ben," Leslie told him gently. "The second you saw me, you looked like a helpless teenage boy. A sexy, helpless, teenage boy. That came out wrong."

"So the skates. What, they're a joke to you?" Ben asked. He felt angry, both at Leslie and himself. This was exactly what he had feared would happen if he told her about this thing.

"No, just the opposite. If this is something you are interested in, I want to give it a shot," Leslie told him seriously. "If me putting on skates makes you happy then I'll skate circles around our bed."

"Why?" Ben asked confused.

"Because I love you and I like you. If this is important to you, it's important to me," Leslie promised him. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about." Leslie reached out and grasped his hand firmly in her own. A mischievous smile crossed her face. "Now, why don't we make one of your fantasies come true?"

Leslie slowly walked backwards and Ben followed her, quickly grabbing the skates before they both broke into a run. He wondered how he had gotten so lucky, because Leslie made him happier than he had any right being.

"Skates," he said excitedly as they entered their bedroom.


End file.
